198 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1023 



to-day, but for to-morrow. He is well 

 aware that lie is still surrounded by too 

 many "men of yesterday," who delay the 

 results of his work. 



Sometimes, however, he may feel dis- 

 couraged that the very efficiency he has 

 succeeded in reaching at the cost of so 

 many painstaking efforts, in the economical 

 production of such an article of endlessly 

 possible uses, as Portland Cement, is hope- 

 lessly lost many times over and over again, 

 by the inefficiency, waste and graft of 

 middlemen and political contractors, by the 

 time it gets on our public roads, or in our 

 public building-s. Sometimes the chaos of 

 ignorant brutal waste which surrounds him 

 everywhere may try his patience. Then 

 again, he has a vision that he is planting 

 a tree which will blossom for his children 

 and will bear fruit for his grandchildren. 



In the meantime, industrial chemistry, 

 like all other applications of science, has 

 gradually called into the world an increas- 

 ing number of men of newer tendencies, 

 men who bear in mind the future rather 

 than the past, who have acquired the habit 

 of thinking by well-established facts, in- 

 stead of by words, of aiming at efficiency 

 instead of striking haphazard at ill-defined 

 purposes. Our various engineering schools, 

 our universities, are turning them out in 

 ever increasing numbers, and better and 

 better prepared for their work. Their very 

 training has fitted them out to become the 

 most broad-minded progressive citizens. 



However, their sphere of action, until 

 now, seldom goes beyond that of private 

 technical enterprises for private gain. And 

 yet, there is not a chemist, not an engineer, 

 worthy of the name, who would not prefer 

 efficient, honorable public service, freed 

 from party politics, to a mere money- 

 making job. 



But most governments of the world have 

 been run for so long almost exclusively by 



lawyer-politicians, that we have come to 

 consider this as an unavoidable evil, until 

 sometimes a large experiment of govern- 

 ment by engineers, like the Panama Canal, 

 opens our eyes to the fact that, after all, 

 successful government is — first and last — 

 a matter of efficiency, according to the 

 principles of applied science. 



Was it not one of our very earliest 

 American chemists, Benjamin Thompson, 

 of Massachusetts, later knighted in Europe 

 as Count Rumford, who put in shape the 

 rather entangled administration of Bavaria 

 by introducing scientific methods of govern- 

 ment ? 



Pasteur was right when one day exas- 

 perated by the politicians who were run- 

 ning his beloved France to ruin, he ex- 

 claimed : 



In our eentury, science is the soul of the pros- 

 perity of nations and the living source of all 

 progress. Undoubtedly, the tiring daily discus- 

 sions of politics seem to he our guide. Empty ap- 

 pearances ! What really leads us forward are a 

 few scientific discoveries and their applications. 



PBELIMINABT BEPOBT ON TEE DISCOV- 



EBT OF HUMAN REMAINS IN AN 



ASPHALT DEPOSIT AT 



BANCHO LA BBEAi 



Introduction 

 In January, 1914, the Museum of History, 

 Science and Art of Los Angeles, being incon- 

 venienced by heavy rains filling the pits al- 

 ready in process of excavation in the asphalt 

 deposits at Eancho La Brea, began work at 

 a new locality, which was designated as pit 

 number ten. Work was started at a point a 

 short distance southwest of a large pit from 

 which many remains of extinct animals had 

 been obtained in previous years. The point at 

 which excavation was initiated was marked by 

 a seepage from which tar had poured out in 

 comparatively recent time. The excavation of 

 this locality showed the presence of two vents 



1 Bead at the Museum of History, Science and 

 Art, Los Angeles, California, June 11, 1914. 



